Terry McDonagh – Wi-Fi Poaching

Wi-Fi Poaching by Terry McDonagh,Founding Contributor of Live Encounters Magazine

I wrote this poem, Wi-Fi Poaching, after I’d heard a story, in the west of Ireland, of a stranger who showed up in a village and immediately began accessing broadband while sitting outside peoples’ homes and businesses. His antics became a source of amusement and topic of conversation in the pub. One woman found him sitting at her back door when she returned from shopping and sent him packing. I imagined him ‘milking’ the system for all he was worth. He left as quietly as he came but he won’t be completely forgotten. At least he gave us a laugh.

Wi-Fi Poaching

When you overhear a person in a Mac shop
enquiring about offers on milking stools

and if you,later, see them perched
outside a garage with a gadget or

looking shady in shrubbery, chances are
they are Wi-Fi poachers, free-loaders,

backpacking piggy-backers, cuckoos
relying on mother-goodness to hatch an egg.

Even worse, they might be tuning into matters
intended for personal use or the confessional.

If only football or racing results were at stake,
you could live with it. But no, these people

read in the light of a neighbour’s window to
save on electricity. Have binoculars to hand.

Solution: when sponger’s expression builds
like a transgression, pull the plug on the router

Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2017

Live Encounters Magazine August 2017

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